S05E09
Summary * On the bridge of the I.S.S. Enterprise, the Imperial Starfleet crew try to hack their Invert counterpart and trigger a United Federation of Planets/Romulan war. ** The hacking attempt launches torpedoes but they miss their targets - the U.S.S. Enterprise crew realise what's going on and prevent it from repeating. ** Mirror-Arvind is punished by Mirror-Satlek for the failed attempt using his Agoniser - the origin of the "neural inhibitor". * Satlek and Gustafsson explain to the other crew-members the basics of the Mirror Universe, a dark reflection of their world where everyone's ethics are reverse. There there is no Federation but a Terran Empire that crushes it's adversaries. * The Mirror-''Enterprise'' is located through it's cloak and forced to retreat through a haze of sensor chaff. It's destination - the Romulus sector. * In the confusion, Mr Einstein manages to download a copy of himself over to the Mirror Universe ship and he spies of them to learn more about them ** Mirror-Carson is a Colonial Corp officer rather than a diplomat... and is approached by Mirror-Betal for help in planning a coup to depose Mirror-Satlek ** Mirror-Arvind runs his department by fear, a tyrannous bully who takes out his frustrations with senior officers on his own charges ** Mirror-Soto has more overt cybernetics and, despite being a product of this cruel world, is still a loyal patriot of his government. ** Mirror-Satlek is obsessed not with the 1960s but the 1980s, and has more interest in carnal pursuits than his counterpart. *** Mirror-Kestra is the target of some of these carnal pursuits, some of them somewhat rough, as well as Mirror-Sakonna. * Robert Carson manages to bring the Romulans back to the negotiating table and convinces them to work with the Enterprise on a mirror universe hunt. * Mr Einstein is discovered exploring the Mirror-Cetacean Ops by Mirror-Sakonna and Mirror-Kestra, who take his holoprojector captive. ** The two Mirror-Vulcans are hardly helpless battered wives - they are secretly scheming against Satlek. * The Federation/Romulan fleet reaches the Romulus sector and, in the planetary debris and abnormal subspace fields, believes that D'Eran State and the I.S.S. Enterprise are hiding. ** Cloaked mines are laid by Mirror-Soto but the native Jaheem Soto finds them by scanning for irregular quantum signatures - the aura of an object outside of its normal reality - and plotting courses that avoid them. * The two Enterprises and their captains come face to face - the Mirror-''Enterprise'' is outnumbered but is a heavilly armed ship that will take a few of the enemy craft with it. * The motive of the Terran Empire becomes apparent - they're running out of room to conquer but their society won't survive without a frontier to explore. They seek to invade the "Invert" universe for lebensraum. * Negotiations between the two parties are agreed - Mirror-Kestra comes over to speak to Satlek. ** She intends to do more than speak to him, and tries to use some of the same maneouvers that she's used on Mirror-Satlek. * The tables are turned when the Romulan Black Hole turns out to be the Romulan Wormhole.... and the I.S.S. Damocles and an entire fleet of Imperial Starfleet vessels emerge. Details * First full appearance of the Mirror Universe crew. (Played, for the most part, by the same players as their normal versions) * Mirror-Satlek informs members of the crew he wishes to spend intimiate time with them by using the phrase: "We need to return some isolinear chips." * Einstein finds a map of the Mirror Universe which shows that the bulk of the explored Alpha and Beta Quadrant are conquered by the Terran Empire. Due to stellar geography - the high-density core, the edge of the galaxy and starless voids between the spiral arms - their empire has expanded as far as it can unless they can find a shortcut to another quadrant, galaxy or universe. **Said map mentions the territory of conquered polities, destroyed enemies or vassal states including: The Klingon Commonwealth, The Romulan Federation, The Cardassian Confederation, The Ferengi Collective and The Gorn Union. ** The Bajoran Wormhole existed in the Mirror Universe but during the "Unity War" - an equivalent of the Dominion War - the wormhole was closed and cannot be reactivated. Thusly the Terran Empire have no way of reaching the Gamma Quadrant. ** The Terran Empire have no maps of the Delta Quadrant, suggesting that their equivalent of Kathryn Janeway's Voyager never returned home. *** The lack of information on the Delta Quadrant includes no knowledge on the Borg. * The Mirror crew do not recognise the historical personage Mr Einstein was based on - in the Mirror Universe he was not an acclaimed scientist but a watchmaker. * The Imperial Starfleet ships include a Mirror Damocles and also a Graf Zeppelin, their equivalent of the U.S.S. Ark Royal * Other crew-members said to be present on the mirror-Enterprise include: ** Mirror-Betal's previous host was killed by Mirror-Satlek when they served on the I.S.S. Spock - their equivalent of the U.S.S. T'Pau - and she plots revenge. ** Mirror-Sakonna is Chief Science Officer - a far less prestigious posting on a ship designed for colonization and conquest rather than exploration. ** Mirror-Coutts is not a counselor but a Commissar or Political Officer, charged with reporting back to Imperial Security. ** Mirror- is still on the ship and is a planetary bombardment & special weapon expert. He was an agent for Imperial Security who infiltrated a Gorn terrorist plot to develop weapons to use against their occupiers. ** Mirror-Yoshitalki is a junior science officer, equally besotted with Kestra as his equivalent in the prime universe.